Archive for March, 2012

St. Patrick’s Day Servery Challenge!

I’ve decided I really need a Servery Challenge banner to go right here on all of my servery challenge posts. I’m not sure what it would look like, but if you have any ideas you should tell me!

Anyway, last week we had yet another grueling competition of creativity and stamina, taking us to the very limit of our taste buds’ endurance. That’s right, it was St. Patrick’s Day servery challenge! As always, competitors had 10 minutes to create some kind of vaguely-edible concoction, and points were given based on taste, presentation, how much we liked the competitor, and how annoying they may have been about winning. Rob claimed the main goal was to “embody the spirit of Ireland”. If that was true, I feel we all owe Ireland sincere apologies.

The Entries

The Pot of Gold by Steven


The Pot of Gold by Steven
Ingredients: Bailey’s Irish cream, Bushmill’s Honey Whiskey, Goldschlager, with a potato chip garnish

This one tasted weird. Mostly like cinnamon, but also kind of milky? And a little bit like glue. Also, unlike everyone else, I wanted the full experience so I actually tried it with the potato chip rim, which added a whole new greasy/salty layer to what was already a strange experience. Steven later claimed that the potatoes were for Irish spirit and actually “to be avoided”. I think he was going for a layered drink, but it didn’t work out that way. The creaminess of the Bailey’s kind of mixed uncomfortably with the Goldschlager, which, to me at least, looked uncomfortably like Thomas’ unholy concoction “The Rob” from Chocovine Espresso Challenge ’11. Like an open sore or vomit. Speaking of vomit…

The Morning After by Rob


The Morning After by Rob
Ingredients: Strawberries, pickle juice, tequila, green food coloring, sprinkles

This drink will definitely go down in servery challenge history, but I’m not sure as what. An abomination in the eyes of God and man? Probably that. Here’s a making of shot:

Camera error, or sign of possession?

Yeah, look at that blender full of hell! Rob claims that drinking pickle juice after your shot of tequila is a hip new thing to do, but why he also chose to mix that with strawberries, I will never know. What does this say about your beloved Ireland, Rob??

Irish Breakfast by Patricia


Irish Breakfast by Patricia
Ingredients: Godiva White Chocolate, Cream, Lucky Charms Marshmallows, Green sugar around the rim

It turns out, marshmallows–well, “marshmallows”, I’m not sure how real they are–don’t taste very good when mixed with white chocolate liqueur. I was going to cut it a little bit with milk, but then we didn’t have milk so I had to use cream. I don’t know what went wrong. I still think this drink has the best concept (Lucky charms!!!) but potentially not the greatest taste. However, I urge you to go back and look at the pictures of my competition! Clearly mine wasn’t that bad.

Happy Ending by Megan


Ingredients: Cupcakes, frosting, sprinkles

How did Megan make cupcakes inside of ten minutes? Alas, she didn’t, violating servery challenge law. She brought the cupcakes with her and used the allotted time to sprinkle them. Is this any different than the pre-bought baked goods that both Steven and eventual winner Alana utilized during Blue Raspberry Servery Challenge? Judges couldn’t decide. It was agreed that Megan’s was definitely the tastiest, but we never could decide if she’d broken the rules.

In part because of this rule confusion, it’s still kind of unclear who won the servery challenge. Some say it was Steven, or Megan, or possibly “everyone”, although I don’t think I want to live in a world where Rob’s drink has won anything. A lot of this confusion is due to our inability to accurately interpret the rulings of our Celebrity Guest Judge and official tie breaker, Macy:

It's hard to judge a culinary competition when you're not allowed to have Human Food

Past Servery Challenges You Might Enjoy:
Chocovine
Raspberry Chocovine
Espresso Chocovine
Blue Raspberry
Sushi
Self-Portrait Cupcakes
Self-Portrait Cookie

Servery Challenge: Blue Raspberry Edition

I am so behind on my Servery challenge recaps I actually have TWO to tell you about! Stay tuned for St. Patrick’s Day Challenge later!

So Blue Raspberry Servery Challenge began when I gave Rob a bottle of blue raspberry flavored syrup for his birthday! It was technically for flavoring snow cones but I figured he could use it to flavor all his food since it’s his favorite flavor. Somehow this turned into a servery challenge!

As usual, I had such a great plan that I finished first! Everyone else was clearly trying too hard:

Our kitchen is maybe not the best set up for such things

Steven even did some actual cooking!

Like with the stove and everything!

The Entries
Unfortunately, it’s been about a month since this challenge, so I’ve actually forgotten the amazing names that everyone made up. So I’ve tried to approximate them.

The Smurfelberry by James Fox

The Smurfelberry


Ingredients I remember: Rum, margarita mix, blue raspberry syrup, ice, lime to garnish, blue sugar on the rim

This one actually tasted pretty good, especially if you like things that taste kind of fake. James is also maybe the only one who added more than the minimum required amount of blue raspberry syrup!

The Slut by Rob

The Slut


Ingredients I remember: Apples, mozzarella cheese, canned peaches, blue raspberry syrup

The Slut wasn’t as bad as it looked, especially if you got a bite with some cheese on it. Some people claimed they would even like to eat a little more of it, except that Rob decided to mix it with mine after the judging, making that impossible. Here’s why:

Blue Spudsberry by Patricia

Blue Spudsberry


Ingredients: Instant Mashed Potatoes, Blue Raspberry Syrup, Water

The beauty of this recipe is its simplicity. I just substituted the blue raspberry syrup for most of the water you’re supposed to mix into the fake mashed potato powder. They don’t have any “plain” instant mashed potato flavors so it also had a buttery taste. Delicious! It actually tasted mostly like mashed potatoes with an after taste of delicious fake raspberry.

Gangrenous Cake by Alana

Gangrenous Cake


Ingredients: Angel food cake, raspberries, blue raspberry syrup, lemon pudding, ???

Like most servery challenge novices, Alana blew most of us out of the water by actually trying. She topped her angel food cake with a kind of pudding sauce that tasted more lemony than blue raspberry, and some actual raspberries! It was delicious.

The Trying Too Hard by Steven

Trying too hard

Here’s a close up:

Steven loves presentation, of course


Ingredients: Key lime pie, blue raspberry sauce, sugar, water, whatever else you put in a “reduction sauce”

Steven’s was essentially key lime pie he bought at Food Lion with a blue raspberry kind of sauce. Of course it tasted good–who doesn’t like key lime pie?

The Voting
I forget who voted for what. Sorry. But Alana won!

WINNER!

Previously: Espresso Chocovine Challenge
Next: St. Patrick’s Day Challenge!!

Give up on me, Rice Annual Fund

This morning I got an email from the Rice Annual Fund! But, instead of their usual impersonal propaganda, it was actually from a real student! How inspiring! Obviously I immediately donated a large sum to help Wiess win some monetary prize that my shiftless brother will get to enjoy!

Oh, j/k, I am currently contemplating cutting my own hair out of poorness, so I will just be writing lengthy, oddly impassioned replies instead. Sorry, Erika, I know this isn’t what they pay you for.

I've seen things, Erika

Click on the image to enlarge.

Steven later pointed out to me that I apparently don’t even know what year I graduated. Unsurprising, given that earlier this week it took me three tries to correctly tell someone how old I am. Hopefully Erika recognizes this as a further symptom of Wiess cabinet-induced trauma.

Give up on me, Rice Annual Fund! For I have no money but too much time.

Goddess Girls: Persephone the Phony

Book 2 of the Goddess Girls series! This time we finally get to hear from quiet, nature-loving Persephone. The Fluttershy of Goddess Girls, if you will.

I would've gone with Persephony, but whatever

Summary of Amazingness
By Patricia
Sometimes Persephone just wants a little peace and quiet, but finds herself following her mom’s advice “going along to get along” and not telling her friends what she really feels. Way to go, PersePHONY! Then she meets cute loner boy Hades and likes him because he calls her on her bullshit. But he’s from the underworld so both her mom and her friends tell her to STAY AWAY! Fed up with being told what to do, she decides to dramatically run away from home one night, using her goddess powers to disguise herself as an old lady and flee to Hades in the Underworld. He’s only worried about her safety and that her mom will think he kidnapped her (lol) so returns her home. After a heart to heart with her mom and her BFFs, Persephone and Hades attend the school dance together!

All a hilarious misunderstanding!

Faithfulness to Original Mythos
By Steven
Oh Persephone, you get such a bad rap in mythology *and* this book. However, while the book Persephone is meek, mild, and passive-aggressive in a way most of us will find very familiar, her mythological counterpart was anything but. Hades-as-emo-boy is also something of a stretch, though, since the original was much less emo and much more devious and aloof. Witness the downfall of Pirithous for a good example. Demeter as helicopter mom is pretty funny, and at least a little true, though this book gives it a slightly happier ending. Double points for including Hypnos and Thanatos in the underworld, though, and for avoiding the slippery slope of the Dantean Underworld that so many people fall into when trying to describe the Greco-Roman version. And points again for Hades’ subterranean (tunneling?) chariot. All in all, this one did a better job than most of putting in the details with less inventive fluff. Kudos!

A slippery slope

Tween Girl Life Lessons
By Patricia
1) If your parents and your friends disapprove of your boyfriend, that makes him EVEN BETTER because clears you are starcrossed lovers!!
2) Running away from home and other desperate bids for attention always work.
3) Cemeteries are the hipster hangout of the pantheon (or maybe Olympian make out point?)

Steven’s Favorites!
Character: The shades in Tartarus. “And anyway, even if I did take the food and money, I needed it more than those orphans!”
Part: Persephone’s attempt to sneak back home after running away to the Underworld. Breadstyx and nectar water for comfort food!
Thing I Learned: Apparently, in ancient Greece, they were called “chariot moms.”

Chariot moms just need to learn to give their daughters a little space

Patricia’s Favorites!!
Character: Hades. I am all about his portrayal as a sad, misunderstood emo kid.
Part: Ares taunts Hades by calling him “Death Boy”, which would be a pretty good name for a band.
Thing I Learned: Charon is surprisingly easily fooled for a guardian of the land of the dead

Previously: Athena the Brain
Next:: Athena the Wise

Or, if you want to read them in book order Book 1, Book 2, Book 3, Book 4, Book 5, Book 6

True History of William Marsh Rice Campaign

I’ve finally integrated the many snippets of research the True History of WMR Campaign has been putting together over the years into one, easily readable document. Anytime we here at the Campaign come across more WMR legends, facts, or sources, we’ll be updating there! Exciting!

For instance, here’s Robert the Bruce and WMR during their most recent battle over the title of World’s Most Powerful Cyborg:

Rough draft of a graphic novelization of the life of WMR drawn and written by James Fox

Better post this quick; only four minutes left!

Did you know my blog is 3 years old today?? IT IS!

Now I’m all nostalgic for making fun of Wiess cabinet members. Clearly I need to call Jeremy Caves and demand he give me a lecture about the best way to use a shower timer or something.

Just a rug, nbd

So a little more than a month ago I learned how to finger knit from this simple tutorial, figuring if children can do it, I can too! And I was right. I just started doing it whenever Steven and I watch a movie or I was doing something with my mind but not with my hands. Then this week I took everything I’d finger-knit and made a rug using another tutorial from the same site! Yay!

My beautiful rug:

I end up photographing my feet way too much

It was super easy and fun!! Maybe next time I will take more photographs of the making-of process.

Guess how many balls of yarn I used!

Exciting!!

Happy Pi Day!!

You may recall me writing last year about how important Pi Day is in my family. Sometimes it’s a little sad to be away from home and the rest of my family on such an important holiday, but luckily Steven has embraced Ladd tradition and is completely willing to spend tonight doing word problems, making bad math puns, and eating pie. Particularly that last part.

This year I went with traditional apple, like the founding fathers made for their Pi Day celebrations

Remember, according to Ladd family lore, if you don’t eat pie on Pi Day, your math skills will be cursed for the rest of the year. I hope you’ve also done all you can to avoid this terrible fate.

I know I have

Experts disagree about whether pie-like foods count, such as “pizza pies” or turnovers. Better be safe than forget how to divide fractions!

Site and contents are © 2009-2024 Patricia Ladd, all rights reserved. | Admin Login | Design by Steven Wiggins.